Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Adrian Blincoe has been officially selected for his second Olympic Games and will run the 5000 meters in London.

Blincoe, who holds the New Zealand national 5000 meter record of 13:10.19, met the New Zealand Olympic Committee selection standard (i.e., the Olympic "A" standard) of 13:20 in July 2011, running 13:18.27 in Barcelona.

He was not named in March's initial team selection, pending proof of his current form. With the US season now underway and a strong time of 13:23.27 recorded in California last week, the selectors are satisfied with Blincoe's fitness.

Blincoe represented New Zealand at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006, and the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010. He was a world outdoor championships semi-finalist in the 1500 meters in both 2003 and 2005. He has personal bests of 3:35.50 in the 1500 meters, 3:54.40 in the mile, 7:46.40 in the 3000 meters, and 13:10.19 in the 5000 meters.

While competing for Villanova, Blincoe won both individual (3000 meters) and relay NCAA titles (anchoring two DMR champions) and was a 7-time All-American. He has served as an assistant coach at Villanova since 2003.

His selection brings the New Zealand Olympic athletics team to six with further selections expected.

Monday, May 28, 2012

For the second time in the weekend, a Villanova signee has won two state titles at the same championship meet. Joining Angel Piccirillo's 800-1600 double at the Pennsylvania state meet, Mansfield High's Josh Lampron won two Massachusetts state titles over the weekend, in the 800 meters (1:52.03 PR) and the mile (4:09.49), each setting a new meet record. Lampron already owns the #1 prep time in the US over 1500 meters; his time of 3:45.74 (the metric equivalent of a 4:03.5 mile) places Lampron in the top 20 all-time preps at that distance. His open mile PR is 4:05.99. The 800-mile titles for Lampron bring his total number of Massachusetts state championships to five. Lampron will compete in the adidas Dream Mile at the adidas Grand Prix on June 9 in New York.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Villanova's 2012 signee Angel Piccirillo (Homer Center, PA) said goodbye to her prep career in style today at the Pennsylvania State championship meet in Shippensburg. Piccirillo, who already owns the USA prep #2 time in the mile, won the state title in the 1600 meters in a US #1 time of 4:39.42. It shattered the 32-year old PIAA state record by a whopping 12.6 seconds. An hour later, Piccirillo lined up for the state final in the 800 meters. She won her second state title of the day, running another PIAA state record of 2:09.68 (this time erasing a 31-year old record). These wins give Piccirillo a career total of 10 state championships: four indoor, four outdoor, and two in cross country.

"It's been a weird spring," said Piccirillo, who will attend Villanova come August. "I had some highlights, but I didn't accomplish some of the things I'd set out to do.

"I knew I wanted to go after that state record, and I wanted to do it in front of this crowd."

She'll arrive at Villanova with the following resume:

2010
State Champion Indoor Mile
State Champion Outdoor 1600 meters
Penn Relays Championship of America Mile winner
State Champion Cross Country
Foot Locker Cross Country National Finalist
Gatorade PA Cross Country Athlete of the Year
PTFCA Cross Country Athlete of the Year

2011
State Champion Indoor Mile
State Champion Outdoor 1600 meters
Penn Relays Championship of America Mile winner
State Champion Cross Country
Foot Locker Cross Country Northeast Champion
Foot Locker Cross Country National Finalist
Foot Locker Cross Country All-American
PTFCA Cross Country Athlete of the Year
Gatorade PA Cross Country Athlete of the Year
PTFCA Outdoor Women's Athlete of the Year

The NCAA East Regional ended well for Villanova this evening as both Bogdana Mimic and defending NCAA champion Sheila Reid qualified for NCAA Nationals in the 5000 meters. Mimic ran in heat 1 and stayed at the front of the pack throughout, cognizant of the fact that the top 5 finishers in each heat qualified automatically for Nationals. Mimic came through to finish 5th, running 16:28.14 in a very economical fashion.

The defending NCAA champion in this event, Sheila Reid was part of a three-person breakaway that stretched out the field in heat 2. Emily Sisson led throughout the race, with Reid sticking to her heels until approximately 800 meters remaining. Her spot among the top 5 firmly secured, Reid did not contest Sisson's surge and coasted home safely in third place, in 16:13.47 (recall that Reid was 4th in her Regional qualifier last year).

Overall, an excellent final day of the regional. Villanova successfully qualified 4 of their 5 competitors today: Sam McEntee in the 1500, Shericka Ward in the 100 meter hurdles, and both Mimic and Reid at 5000 meters. Add those names to Sam Ellison, who qualified yesterday in the 800 meters, and Villanova will send 5 athletes to Des Moines in two weeks for a shot at national glory.

It was deja vu all over again today in Sam McEntee's 1500 meter race at the NCAA East Regional. Executing the same tactic as in his preliminary round, McEntee ran in last place and out of trouble through 800 meters, then went immediately to the front and pushed the pace over the final 700 meters. In the preliminary round, McEntee held off all comers and won the heat. Today, he held off all but two men, finished third in this heat (in 3:48.73) and automatically qualified for the NCAA National championship meet at Drake University in Des Moines. McEntee has thus qualified for Nationals both indoors and outdoors this year and hopes to improve on his 4th place All-American performance indoors earlier this year. As seen in the results below, McEntee's heat was the slower of the two heats, and both qualifiers on time came from the other heat. In a surprising twist, neither Penn State's Robby Creese, the NCAA record holder over 1000 meters, nor Notre Dame's Jeremy Rae, a two-time Big East champion and 2011 NCAA outdoor finalist, advanced to Nationals. Full merged results are below.

Also qualifying for Nationals was senior hurdler Shericka Ward. Ward finished 5th in her 100 meter hurdle heat, in 13.25, and because only the top 3 in each of the three heats automatically qualify, Ward had to sit and watch the two remaining heats to see if she would advance to Nationals on time. Her 13.25 held up and she ended the competition as the 2nd fastest non-auto qualifier.

In other action today so far, Emily Lipari ran in heat 2 of the women's 1500 meters, but was never able to change gears and insert herself into the action up front. Running with what looked to be dead legs, Lipari found herself running in 11th place over the final laps. Unable to employ her usual late-race kick, Lipari finished 11th, in 4:27.35.

In the women's triple jump, Samantha Francis maxed out at 40' 0" , with a three-jump sequence of 40'0" - foul - 38'9". She finished 36th of the 48 competitors in the event.

Friday, May 25, 2012

The highlight of Day 2 of the NCAA East Regional as far as Villanova fans are concerned was Sam Ellison's PR of 1:47.76 -- good for 3rd place in his 800 meter heat (4th overall among all heats) and an automatic spot at NCAA Nationals in Des Moines. The merged results of the 3 heats are provided below.

A second bit of good news was provided by senior Shericka Ward, who came 2nd in her heat of the 100 meter hurdles, in 13.23. She qualified for tomorrow's decisive NCAA "quarterfinals," where she will attempt to qualify for Nationals.

The other news of the day was all bad.

Christie Verdier finished 7th in her heat of the 400 meters, running 53.94 and out of the competition.

Nicky Akande ended an otherwise brilliant season on a downer, as she cratered badly in her 800 meter heat. She finished 9th, in 2:12.80, well below her capabilities, and was also eliminated.

Also eliminated was Nicoy Hines, who ran 52.61 in the 400 meter hurdles, finishing 7th in his heat.

Sam Yeats initially looked dangerous in the high jump, clearing 5' 5.75" and 5' 7.75" on her first attempts at each height. However, she was stymied at 5' 9.75" in three consecutive attempts and was out of the competition.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Sam McEntee and Emily Lipari each won their 1500 meter heat and advanced to Saturday's "quarterfinal" round.

After a painfully slow heat 1 of the men's 1500 -- which went through the 800 in an agonizing 2:26 -- that eliminated Villanova's Rob Denault, McEntee's heat went out much quicker (61 at 400, and 2:04 at 800). McEntee, who finished 4th at NCAA indoors in the mile, sat at the back of the pack until 800 meters then went quickly to the front of the pack. He extended his lead and won the heat in 3:46.77. Brian Tetreault ran in heat 4, which was the fastest of the day (going out in 59.60 and 2:01). Tetreault couldn't extricate himself from the back of the pack, and finished in 9th place, running 3:49.77

On the women's side, both Lipari and Ariann Neutts ran in heat 3 of the women's 1500. Both women ran near the front for first half of the race, but Neutts started fall dropping in place after 800 meters. Lipari ran a typical race for her -- staying in contention (in this case 6th place) until the final 120 meters. She then executed her standard kick and ran past the front pack, winning the heat in the fastest time of the day, 4:21.37. Neutts finished 12th in 4:30.31 and failed to advance. Hopefully Lipari did not spend too much energy in catapulting herself that way, as the next round of the 1500 meters is Saturday night.

Christie Verdier (left) set a new 400 meter PR tonight at the NCAA East Regional, coming third in her heat of the 400 meters and automatically advancing to the next round. Verdier ran 53.28, the 11th fastest time of the day among the 48 competitors, and broke her previous PR of 53.56 set at the Big East meet three weekend ago.

In the 800, Nicky Akande (right) was sitting pretty in 3rd place on the final straight, but began to tie up and was passed by two runners in the final 10 meters. Akande fell across the finish line (just barely crossing the line) to finish 5th in 2:07.55. Because she was out of the top three finishers in her heat, she had to wait to see if she would qualify on time (the next 9 fastest finishers outside the top three would advance). Her time stood up, and Akande was the 5th fastest non-automatic qualifier, thereby advancing to the next round on Friday.

In the men's 400 meter hurdles, junior Nicoy Hines (left) finished a strong 3rd in his heat, running 52.04, and thereby automatically advanced to the next round (which takes place Friday night).

In other action, long jumper Elbert Maxwell leaped 22' 9.75" to finish 37th among the 48 competitors. Freshman Megan Venables contested the 10,000 meters in the final event of Day 1 of the Regional. She came home 30th out of 47 competitors, in 36:15.73. Finally, in the women's javelin, freshman Jamie Klein threw 132' 7" and finished 36th in the field of 47 competitors.

Sam Ellison took care of business in heat 6 of the preliminary round of the East Regional 800 meter competition. Ellison ran 1:49.65 to win his heat and advance to the next round of competition tomorrow. Chris FitzSimons ran 1:50.90 in heat 1, finishing in 6th place. Only the top three finishers in each of the 6 heats was guaranteed a spot in the next round, with the next 9 fastest times also advancing. FitzSimons had to sit and watch the remaining 5 heats to determine his fate. He was still in the competition through 5 heats, but was eliminated when the 4th and 5th runners in heat 6 came in faster than his 1:50.90.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Pennsylvania state meet is two days away and Villanova's 2012 signee Angel Piccirillo enters the competition as the state's #1 seed at both the 800 meters (2:12.48) and the 1600 meters (4:48.28). She has the #2 time in the USA in the mile this year. Here's a snippet from PennLive.com's preview by Jay Rtoz of the Patriot-News:

The queen of middle distances ... we think.

Every couple of years, a distance runner comes out of Pennsylvania destined for bigger things. The 2012 model is Angel Piccirillo.

She’s a senior at Homer Center High School, a few miles outside Indiana in District 6. And she’s such a fixture at Shippensburg, longtime PA announcer Bob Schellenberg probably intones “AN-gel Pic-ah-RIL-lo” unconsciously by now.

Piccirillo’s honors will fill several pages before she arrives at Villanova University in the fall. She’s won the last two Class AA 1600-meter golds. She’s been the state AA cross-country champ the last two years. She finished second in the mile at the Penn Relays.

Piccirillo is the top seed in two events this weekend — the AA 800 and 1600 meters. Her seed time of 4:48.28 in the 1600 is more than eight seconds faster than that of Elk County Catholic sophomore Kennedy Weisner.

But the 800 — that’s where it gets a little dicey. Not only is Weisner just .11 seconds behind Piccirillo’s 2:12.48 in the seed times, but both of them will have to get past the defending champion in the event, Boiling Springs senior Lillie Brown. Brown took the state by storm last year with her winning 2:13.78.

Joe Manion, a stalwart of the short relays for Jumbo Elliott in the late 1950s and early 1960s, died yesterday at his home in West Chester, PA. Manion was a team captain while at Villanova and won four Penn Relays championships: as part of three consecutive mile relays in 1959, 1960, and 1961, and another in the 1961 880 yard relay. He is a member of the Villanova athletics Hall of Fame and received the Villanova Alumni Medal for outstanding service to the university's alumni association. Below is his obituary as it appears in today's Philadelphia Inquirer. The Villanova track and field community offers condolences to his family.

JOSEPH J. MANION, age 72, of West Chester, PA, formerly of Media, PA, died peacefully on May 22, 2012 at his home.

Survived by his wife of fifty years, Dolores Westhoff Manion, his eight children: Katie, Beth, Joe, Matt, Amy, John, Tricia and Paul, and their spouses: Mark Jones, Jacinto Oliver, Mary Eileen Rogers, Kerri Dougherty, Tom Swift, Rose Jagielo, Dan Cellucci and Nicole Melchiorre, and 26 grandchildren. Also survived by his sister, Jane Kazunas and his mother-in-law, Regina Westhoff. Born and raised in St. Barnabas parish, Joe graduated from West Catholic Boys High School in 1957 and Villanova University in 1961. He was captain of the track team at West Catholic and Villanova - where he ran for the legendary Jumbo Elliott - and is in the Hall of Fame for both schools.

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 5/22/2012 - The Philadelphia Division I schools will be well represented at the NCAA Eastern Regional Track and Field meet scheduled for May 24 – 26. Forty athletes from the local schools will compete in the preliminaries starting on Thursday, May 24. Villanova will send the largest contingent to the meet as 19 athletes have qualified, seven men and 12 women to Jacksonville, FL. Penn will send nine to the Jacksonville site (five women and four men). LaSalle will have three men and two women athletes representing the school while Saint Joseph’s will send one distance runner to Florida. Six Temple Owls will travel to the preliminaries on the campus of North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, NC sending four men and two women athletes.

A summary of the competing athletes is below.

Villanova Women

The Wildcats will have 12 athletes competing in 12 events led by defending national champion Sheila Reid running in the 5000 meters. Bogdana Mimic (left) will also participate the 5000 meters. Both have qualified as All-American in the race. Sprinter Sherika Ward will run in the 100 meter hurdles. In the middle distance events Nicky Akande will run in the 800 meters, while Emily Lipari and Ariann Neutts will run in the 1500 meters. Sprinter Christie Verdier is a qualifier in the 400 meters. Running in the 10,000 meters will be freshman Megan Venables. In field events Villanova will be represented by Samantha Francis in the triple jump and Samantha Yeats in the high jump. Jamie Klein will compete in the javelin, and Alexandra Wasik the pole vault.

Villanova Men

Samuel McEntee leads a group of seven Villanova athletes to qualify. McEntee will be joined by Brian Tetreault and Rob Denault in the 1500 meters. Samuel Ellison (right) and Chris FitzSimons will run for the Wildcats in the 800 meters. Sprinter Nicoy Hines will run the 400 meter hurdles. In the field Elbert Maxwell will compete in the long jump.

Penn Women

The Red and Blue will have three women athletes making their second straight appearance. Paige Madison runs in the 400 meters, Victoria Strickland is in the 800 meter event, and Morgan Wheeler is in the javelin. Jillian Hart is making her initial NCAA appearance in the pole vault. Kristen Judge will compete in the high jump.

Penn Men

The Quaker contingent will be led by Hepatagonal High Jump Champions Maalik Reynolds. This will be his second outdoor appearance. Reynolds finished seventh last year, and enters as the 4 seed. Making his second appearance in the 800 is Brian Fulton. Ryan Cunningham will run the 1500 meter race. Jake Brenza also goes to the NCAA Regions for the first time in the shot put.

Temple Men

Travis Mahoney will run the Steeplechase. He is the defending Atlantic 10 champion in this event. In field events Darryl McDuffie will take part in the high jump while Gabe Pickett and Derek Holland will compete in the triple jump. Pickett is the reigning Atlantic 10 champion.

Temple Women

School record holder and Atlantic 10 champion Margo Britton will represent Temple in the shot put. She will also hope to advance to the NCAA finals in the discus. Jade Wilson will run in the 400 meter hurdles.

LaSalle Men

Three Explorers qualified on the men’s meet. Nick Crits will run in the 1500 meters. A pair of runners Alfredo Santana and Dave Hausherr will complete in the 10,000 meter run.

LaSalle Women

Running the 10,000 meters will be Megan McGlinchey who won the Atlantic 10 title in this event. Megan Lutz will compete in the same race.

Saint Joseph’s Men

Kevin McDonnell is set to compete in the 10,000 meter for the second time in his career.

In this story from today's Duluth's News Tribune, Carrie talks about the 2004 Olympic Trials (where she competed at both the 5000 -- failing to qualify for the Olympics -- and the 1500, which she won. On the comeback trail, Tollefson has so far failed to attain the US Olympic Trials "B" standard of 15:50, but she says she'll likely have one more shot to do so: at the Portland Track Classic next weekend.

Carrie Tollefson’s message to Duluth middle school students Tuesday was perseverance, and the U.S. Olympic track runner had plenty of examples to illustrate her point.

The best was about recovering from heartbreak during the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. She expected to qualify for the Summer Games in Greece by placing in the top three of the 5,000-meter event, but she finished sixth. Yet she also was entered at 1,500 meters and, despite 100-degree temperatures on the track, won the race.

About 200 students each at Morgan Park and Woodland saw video of the victory in Sacramento, Calif., and an energized Tollefson, who grew up in Dawson, Minn., earned applause for the effort.

“You are not going to win every race, you are going to face bumps and bruises along the way, but don’t be discouraged,” she said. “The idea is to find a sport and exercise every day. Move your body every day.”

Grandma’s Marathon has brought athletes to Duluth in recent years to spread the word during Fit-n-Fun assemblies. Other speakers have included Duluthian Kara Goucher, Dick Beardsley, Bill Rodgers and Suzy Favor Hamilton, all acclaimed runners.

Tollefson, 35, a St. Paul resident and mother of a 2-year-old girl, is best known as Minnesota’s only five-time high school girls cross country champion (1990-94). She went on to win five NCAA Division I cross country and track titles at Villanova University and continues to race, while working in television and radio commentary for road racing and track.

There are rumors she retired as a professional runner, but instead she’s persevering. To get to next month’s 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials at 5,000 meters, she must run a qualifying race in 15 minutes, 50 seconds or faster. She tried in April in Stanford, Calif., in her first serious race in three years, and missed. She tried again last Friday, in Los Angeles, leaving her husband and daughter at home, and spending money on airfare, a rental car and hotel room (she no longer receives sponsor money from Adidas).

About 75 seconds into the race, a runner stepped on the back of Tollefson’s left shoe, which came off. By the time she tried to unknot the laces, the other runners had pulled away and her night was over.

“I have aspirations of having more children and being a great broadcaster, but I’m not ready to give up racing,” said Tollefson. “It was hard to swallow, to travel so far and have my hopes end in less than two minutes. There were some tears shed.

“But I try to practice what I preach. I’m a runner and I have to give it a go. I have to try. Realistically, my racing could last five more years or one month.”

Although losing a shoe during a track race is rare, it has happened to Tollefson three times. The first was in a 1,500-meter race in Finland in 2004 and the second in a much-publicized 1,500 at the 2005 Steve Prefontaine Classic. In Eugene, with two laps to go, runners starting tumbling like dominoes, according to the Eugene Register-Guard, with five having to leave the race, including Tollefson.

The best-known losing-a-shoe race featured Proctor’s Garry Bjorklund at 10,000 meters in the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials, also in Eugene. His left foot was accidently stepped on halfway through the 6.2 miles, he kicked off the shoe and finished in an adrenaline-fueled rush, placing third and advancing to the Summer Games in Montreal, Quebec.

Tollefson says she may have one more qualifying chance at the Portland (Ore.) Track Classic on June 8-9. The U.S. Olympic Trials 5,000 qualifying races are June 25.

Tollefson will be in Duluth on June 16 to provide radio commentary on the U.S. Half Marathon Championships to be held in conjunction with Grandma’s Marathon.

Monday, May 21, 2012

On the verge of being named to his second New Zealand Olympic team at 5000 meters, Adrian Blincoe will contest the 3000 meters at the Hyunday Grand Prix in Oslo, Norway on Thursday. Blincoe was the NCAA indoor champion over that distance in 2002 and was runner up to Alistair Cragg in the same event the following year. Blincoe holds a 7:46.38 PR in the 3000, set at Rieti in August 2010. Here is the start list for Blincoe's heat:

Blincoe in running for spot at London games
MARC HINTON
Stuff.co.nz
May 21, 2012

United States-based distance runner Adrian Blincoe may have sealed his spot at the London Olympics with a creditable 5000m performance in California at the weekend.

Blincoe ran a more-than-respectable 13min 23.73s as he finished fifth in an international meet at Occidental College. The race was won by Somalian-born Brit Mo Farah in 13:12.87.

Blincoe's time, said Athletics NZ high-performance director Scott Goodman, should go close to seeing the Kiwi officially added to the New Zealand track and field team for London this week. It would be his second Olympics, after he competed in Beijing in 2008.

"We'd be pretty confident that would see him meet the proof of current form requirement, but that will be the selectors' call."

Blincoe met the Olympic A standard for the 5000m last year, but was required to confirm his form before being officially added to the Kiwi squad for London. He has a best for the distance of 13:10, which is also the New Zealand record.

The two Kiwi 1500m hopefuls Zane Robertson and Hamish Carson both ran under 3:40 at the weekend. "They were good times, but not quite what they need," said Goodman.

Track and Field News, the "bible" since 1948, has just released its latest US Olympic Trials form chart, and Bobby Curtis is predicted to finish out of the money in his quest to make the 2012 London team. The experts there rank him # 10 in the US (down from # 4 at last look), with the introduction of Chris Derrick and Dathan Ritzenhein into the rankings at the # 3 and 4 spots, respectively. Ben True (PR 27:41.17), who headed Curtis in a road 5K recently, jumped ahead of Curtis, as did Brent Vaughn (27:40.21), Brian Olinger (27:50.58) and Tim Nelson (27:28.19). So, Curtis has his doubters, which should provide plenty of motivation for the 27:24.67 man.

Some of this strike us as ludicrous (especially the placing of Olinger, True, and Vaughn ahead of Curtis, despite their PRs that are 26, 17, and 16 seconds slower, respectively). Admittedly, Curtis has not run a track 10,000 meter race this season, seeking to peak at the Trials, but then again neither has Tim Nelson, who jumped Curtis on the list despite having finished behind Curtis each time they've jointly contested that distance. What next, Kevin Castille? He's had a great spring. One hopes that Curtis is sufficiently motivated by the apparent lack of faith in him on the part of the experts at T&F News to put these people in their place.

VILLANOVA, Pa. - It was a special evening of recognition at the annual Senior Student-Athlete Banquet on Thursday evening at the Connelly Center, where the Athletics Department celebrated the accomplishments of its graduating senior student-athletes. The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the Male and Female Senior Student-Athletes of the Year, with this year's awards going to volleyball player Maggie Mergen and men's cross country and track runner Mathew Mildenhall.

Mergen is a two-time All-BIG EAST first team selection and earned second team honors in her sophomore year. She consistently led the Wildcats in hitting percentage for three consecutive seasons and holds a 3.6 GPA in the Villanova School of Business with a major in management. Mergen has been accepted into the Peace Corps, but will defer for one year and begin her graduate degree at American University.

This season, Mergen tallied her 1,000th career kill in Villanova's second match of the season. She recorded 19 matches with double figure kills and finishes her Villanova career ranked eighth in kills with 1,298. Mergen is also Villanova's all-time leader in hitting percentage with a stellar .297. As a junior, she was named to the AVCA All-Northeast Region honorable mention squad.

Mergen is a four-time BIG EAST Academic All-Star and was named to the 2010 Philadelphia All-Area team.

Mildenhall is a two-time All-American, three-time BIG EAST individual champion and a nine-time All-BIG EAST performer for the Wildcats while carrying a 3.57 cumulative grade-point average as a Marketing major in the Villanova School of Business. He will graduate this weekend but has an additional year of athletic eligibility and plans to return to the cross country team next fall when he begins graduate studies.

During the past cross country season Mildenhall helped lead Villanova to the team title at the BIG EAST Championships for the first time in 10 years. He earned All-BIG EAST and All-Mid Atlantic Region accolades, marking the third straight season he has achieved both distinctions. In addition to his success on the course Mildenhall also excelled academically and earned a 4.0 GPA for the Fall 2011 semester. That came despite taking his heaviest semester course load since beginning his studies at Villanova. Thanks in part to Mildenhall the men's cross country team tallied the highest GPA for the semester out of any of the Wildcats sports programs. He previously was an All-American during the 2009 campaign.

In track competition Mildenhall is a two-time BIG EAST individual champion and a five-time All-BIG EAST performer during the indoor season. He was part of the winning distance medley relay squad in 2010 and a year later won the title in the 3000 meters, an event he has garnered All-BIG EAST honors in three times. Mildenhall also anchored the DMR squad to an All-American performance at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships. Last spring he also earned All-BIG EAST honors in the 5000 meters.

Academically, Mildenhall is a four-time BIG EAST Academic All-Star and in 2010 was named to the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team for cross country.

Each year the Male and Female Senior Student-Athlete of the Year awards are given to a senior who has excelled in both athletics and academics in addition to making a positive impact through community service. The winner must have at least a 3.2 grade-point average in addition to being a significant contributor to his/her team.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Villanova assistant coach and former NCAA champion over 3000 meters Adrian Blincoe finished 5th in a loaded 5000 meter race at the OXY High Performance meet in Los Angeles. While his time of 13:23.73 in this race was outside the Olympic "A" standard (13:20.00), Blincoe already has the "A" standard in his pocket by virtue of his 13:18.27 run at Barcelona last year. From the perspective of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, Blincoe is expected to show fitness before being named to the Olympic team, and this 13:23.73 certainly accomplishes that task.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Former Villanova All-American Nicole Schappert continued her excellent 2012 outdoor season with a monster 5-second PR over 1500 meters tonight at the OXY High Performance meet in Los Angeles. Nicole ran 4:07.79 in her heat, a full 5+ seconds faster than her recently-established 1500 PR of 4:12.95 set last month. Her time easily assured her of an automatic qualifier for the US Olympic Trials (where the AQ is 4:12.93), and surpassed the Olympic "B" standard of 4:08.90. She fell just short of achieving the Olympic "A" standard of 4:06.00. Overall, an excellent race for for the former Wildcat.

Marina Muncan ran in the same heat, and came 7th in 4:09.06, just one-sixth of a second outside the Olympic "B" standard. Its the fastest time achieved by Muncan outdoors since June 2008, when she ran 4:08.18. Her all-time 1500 meter PR is 4:08.02 (2007), so her race tonight was only 1 second off that career best. Still, Muncan, who is the Serbian national record holder at 1500 meters and the mile, was in search of an Olympic standard in the hopes of punching her ticket to London. The race shows her to be very fit and bodes well for attaining the standard in a subsequent race.

Defending Class AA 800 champion Caitlin Bungo of Sewickley Academy qualified for this year's championships in the mile and two mile. But she spent the afternoon at Baldwin High School in a lounge chair.

Bungo suffered a stress fracture in her left leg that will take six weeks to heal. That means not chance to run at the PIAA championships, either.

Bungo won the WPIAL Class AA cross country title in the fall -- her first year of cross country -- and will attend Villanova to run track.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Here are the results from tonight's race in Minneapolis. Frances Koons came 5th, in 4:40.5. Heather Kampf made a strong move over the final 300 meters and no one was able to cover it. She won by almost 3 seconds.

An eight-time All American while at Villanova, Frances Koons is in Minneapolis tonight competing for the USA 1 Mile Road Championship. Here is the list of competitors in the race. As can be seen, Koons owns the second-fastest mile PR in the field (4:31.5) and could be competitive for a top finish.

The race is being live webcast tonight at 7:45 pm Central Time and is available HERE.

Seven men and twelve women will represent Villanova at the 2012 NCAA Track and Field East Regional, to take place at the University of North Florida, May 24-26. Because of the meet schedule and her participation at the Canadian Olympic Trials, Sheila Reid will not attempt to repeat the historic 1500/5000 double she won in 2011, but will concentrate this year solely on the 5000 meters.

The Villanova athletes who will seek to springboard through the Regional and get to Nationals are listed be listed below. For the complete list of accepted entries, click HERE.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

NEW YORK CITY (May 16, 2012)—Josh Lampron and Ben Malone, who own the two fastest 1500-meter times in the nation so far this season, are among 16 top high school athletes added to the fields for the adidas Dream 100 and adidas Dream Mile at the adidas Grand Prix on June 9, organizers have announced.

Also headlining the roster are Ajee Wilson, the 2011 World Youth Champion at 800 meters, and freshman sensation Alexa Efraimson, the first freshman ever invited to a Dream event.

The Dream 100 and Dream Mile are again destined to be among the most hotly contested events at the adidas Grand Prix on June 9. In its eighth year as one of the premier track-and-field events in the world, the adidas Grand Prix, at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island, will feature dozens of Olympic medalists and World Champions, including Yohan Blake, the reigning 100-meter World Champion, and David Rudisha, the 800-meter World Record-holder, who will be making his U.S. debut. The event will again be the sixth stop on the international Samsung Diamond League circuit and is part of the Visa Championships Series.

Lampron, a senior from Mansfield, Mass., last weekend ran 3:45.74 for 1500 meters at a meet in Boston, among the top-20 high school times in U.S. history and the fastest in the nation since 2009. The 2011 national champion in the mile, Lampron is a three-time state champion and will attend Villanova University in the fall.

Malone, a junior from Hillsdale, N.J., is the 2012 National Indoor Champion at 800 meters and holds U.S. high school indoor records for a junior at 800 meters (1:49.94) and 1000 meters (2:23.56). On Monday, he ran the #2 time in the U.S. at 1500 meters, 3:49.84.

A senior from Neptune, N.J., Wilson is one of the top high school athletes in New Jersey history. Currently ranked #2 in the nation at 800 meters, she finished the 2012 indoor season ranked #1 at both 600 and 800 meters. A qualifier for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, Wilson will attend Florida State University.

Efraimson, of Camas, Wash., has run 4:23.41 for 1500 meters already this season to rank #4 on the U.S. list, and her time of 2:08.92 for 800 meters is #7. She finished 14th at cross country nationals last fall.

Also accepting invitations to the Boys’ Dream Mile are Jacob Burcham, a junior from Ona, W. Va.; who finished seventh at 1500 meters in the 2011 World Youth Championships in 3:46.55, the fastest time by a U.S. prep last year; Brannon Kidder, a senior from Lancaster, Ohio, a four-time state track champion ranked #4 in the U.S. at 1600 meters who is headed to Penn State University; Craig Nowak, a senior from Cypress, Tex., who is a five-time 5A state champion, ranks #2 at 1600 meters and #3 at 3200 meters, and will attend Oklahoma State University; and Craig Engels, a senior from Pfafftown, N.C., ranked in the top 10 at the mile (#3), 1500 meters (#4), and 3200 meters (#10). Engels was the 2012 Penn Relays Mile Champion in front of Burcham, the runner-up, and Malone, who placed third. He will attend North Carolina State University.

Joining Wilson and Efraimson in the Girls’ Dream Mile will be Haley Pierce, a senior from Wilmington, Del., the 15-time State Champion ranked #3 at 3200 meters and #4 at 1600 meters who will attend Georgetown University; Angel Piccirillo, a senior from Homer Center, Penn., who is a two-time state Gatorade Cross-Country Athlete of the Year, a seven-time State Champion, ranks #2 in the mile and will attend Villanova University; Amy-Eloise Neale, a junior from Snohomish, Wash., six-time Washington 3A State Champion ranked #4 in the mile and #6 at 1500 meters; and Paige Rice, a sophomore from St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, Ore., the 6A Oregon Cross Country State Champion ranked #4 in the U.S. at 1500 meters.

Burcham, Wilson, Pierce, Piccirillo and Neale are all making return Dream Mile appearances.

Joining the field of the adidas Boys’ Dream 100 are Raymond Bozmans of Fort Collins, Colo., a senior ranked #3 in the U.S. at 100 meters and #5 at 200 meters who is the 2012 Arcadia Invite Champion and will attend Texas Christian University on a football scholarship; and Khalfani Muhammad of Sherman Oaks, Calif., a junior who is the 2012 Mt. SAC champion at both 100 and 200 meters and 2011 state runner-up in both distances.

Added to the adidas Girls’ Dream 100 are Kali Davis-White of Lauderdale Lake, Fla., a junior ranked #4 in the U.S. and 2012 Florida State 4A runner-up at both 100 and 200 meters to the previously announced Shayla Sanders; and Destinee Gause of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, a senior who is the 2012 National Indoor Champion at 200 meters and is ranked #5 at 100 meters. The 2011 Ohio State Champion at 100 and 200 meters, she will attend the University of Florida.

Fields for the Dream Mile and Dream 100 are being drawn from the winners of three qualifying meets in the adidas Golden Stripes series, as well as from at-large bids. The first meet, the adidas Meet of Champions, was held on March 24, followed by the Kansas Relays in Lawrence, Kan., April 19-21. Next up is the Golden South Classic in Orlando, Fla., on May 26. In addition to the opportunity to compete in a world-class international track event, athletes in the Dream Mile and Dream 100 will also have the chance to receive coaching from mile legend Jim Ryun.

Several Villanova athletes past and present will compete this Friday night in Los Angeles at Occidental College's Oxy High Performance meet. Specifically, the women's 1500 meter race (8:20 pm PT) will showcase the following Villanovans: Carmen Douma-Hussar, Marina Muncan, Nicole Schappert, Jen Rhines, and current NCAA defending champion Sheila Reid. In the 5000 meters (women 9:35 pm PT, men 9:55 pm PT) Carrie Tollefson will attempt to achieve the entry standards for the US Olympic Trials; the "B" standard is 15:50 and the "A" is 15:35. Tollefson has run two 5000 meter races this spring, hitting 16:26.63 at the Hamline Invitational on April 8th and 16:12.64 at Stanford on April 29th. On the men's side, Adrian Blincoe will try to rebound from a fall/DNF in the 10,000 race at Stanford. He ran very well on April 15th to finish 4th at the B.A.A. road 5K in 13:46. Blincoe, a 2008 Olympian at 5000 meters, already owns the Olympic "A" for the London Games, having run 13:18.27 in Barcelona on July 22, 2011.

Each of these races includes an impressive list of top talent, so the times should be fast. Here are the respective start lists:

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Sam McEntee's 3:36.81 in the 1500 meters yesterday at Swarthmore was the 10th fastest time ever achieved by a collegiate runner in the United States. Villanova's Sydney Maree stills tops the all-time list with his 3:35.30 run over 30 years ago. Here's the current top-10.

The 2012 Villanova track and field incoming class has been marked by a series of superlative races over the past few weeks. The standout performances from the group were Josh Lampron's USA #1 1500 meter time of 3:45.74 PR (equivalent to a 4:03.5 mile) and Angel Piccirillo's new USA #2 PR of 4:44.08 in the mile. Here are some of the more noteworthy times achieved by the future Wildcats.